Catch 'em if you can

Published 1:00 am, Saturday, February 21, 2004

DANBURY - The trouble with ice fishing is once the hook is set, it's hard to let go.

Tim Goodspeed
of Brewster, N.Y., started fishing as a teenager living on Beaver Brook Road in Danbury, and he never shook loose.

"It isn't just sitting on an ice cold bucket on a lake," Goodspeed said. "My friends ask 'How can you do that,' and I say, 'How can you go to a bar?'"

Ice fishing is about hanging out with friends, keeping warm by swapping stories, cooking hot food on the Coleman stove, and checking out each other's supply sleds. Those who love the sport buy $150 boots to keep their feet warm and use hand warmers.

"We'll go out each weekend from the first ice in November or December into March," said
Bob Britton
of Danbury, who was fishing with his old friend Goodspeed on Feb. 14.

The pair were among the founders of the Jig 'N' Pig fishing derby that attracts hundreds of fishing enthusiasts on the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday. The derby is about eight years old and growing.--photo1L--

The "jig" is a shiny metal lure with a hook that holds the bait - a grub or maggot. A fisherman drops the jig into an ice hole and jigs it up and down a few inches until he gets a strike.

The "pig" refers to the massive quantity of pork and chili the fishermen eat during the derby.

The fishermen cooked seven pig hindquarters this year, and gave away more than $3,000 to winners of the derby. They gave $1,280 to Michael Schlichtig, a Danbury youngster who lost his father in a car accident in August.--photo2R--

Each fisherman paid $5 of the $25 entry fee to Michael Schlichtig's college fund, a fund organized by the late
Jimmy Schlichtig
's old fishing buddies.

"He was always out there fishing with us," Britton said of Jimmy Schlichtig. "Someday his son is going to say, 'My father must have been a great guy to have this many friends.'"

"We're going to do this every year," Goodspeed said. "We're committed to it."